Around autumn, when someone with whom I had been accustomed to speaking had gone somewhere, I took the opportunity to send these by messenger.

うはの空にみし面影をおもひいでて月になれにし秋ぞ恋しき

uwa no sora ni mishi omokage o omoi’idete tsuki ni narenishi aki zo koishiki

In the heavens’ heights The face that once I saw I do recall, and Accustomed to the moon In autumn do I yearn even more…[i]

609

---

[i] See: On the conception of ‘love, having once met, but no longer’ for the Poetry Match held at the Poetry Office. ゆめかとよみし面影もちぎりしもわすれずながらうつつならねば yume ka to yo / mishi omokage mo / chigiri shi mo / wasurezu nagara / utsutsu naraneba ‘Was it a dream? Or not? / That face I saw, and / His promises, too, / I cannot forget, / Though real they were not…’ The Daughter of Toshinari, Assistant Master of the Dowager Empress Household Office (Shinkokinshū XV: 1391)